Chasing the Flop
by blue104
Summary: Deputy Marshals from the Houston Task Force enlist SVU's help in apprehending a recently escaped serial rapist who once called the Tri-State his stomping ground. In the process, Amanda Rollins must come face to face with both the people from her past and present. Takes place after Season 16. [Rolivia}
1. God's Gonna Cut You Down

**Disclaimer: As always, I don't own characters or setting. But that should be a given by now. This story also utilizes characters and settings from NBC's Chase (cancelled after only 18 episodes), which stars Kelli Giddish (Amanda Rollins) as the lead. Since SVU is no stranger to crossovers, I figured this might be a fun idea to play around with. This is, however, primarily an SVU story and any knowledge of Chase is unnecessary. This story stands alone.**

* * *

"Can I help you?" Carisi stopped to hop up onto his desk. He flashed a smile at the lady before extending a hand out towards her. "Detective Dom Carisi. At your service."

"Yeah, alright." She didn't even glance at Carisi's hand as she walked past him. She opened her jacket, flashing a star. "Deputy Marshal Ogbaa. From Houston. I'm looking for Lieutenant Benson."

"The lieutenant? She isn't in right now. But I can take a message if you'd like?"

Fin rolled his eyes. "Shut it, Carisi." He turned to the deputy before speaking. His hand, she shook. "I'm

Detective Tutuola. The Lieutenant's on her way in. Jury didn't get in until about fifteen minutes ago. You can wait out here or in her office."

Daisy, eyebrow raised, glanced over at Carisi.

"I'll wait in her office," she said.

Fin laughed. "Good choice."

Daisy closed the office door behind her. She didn't know what to make of New York. Sure, she'd been up north

before, but never to the city. It hadn't helped that flying into Newark had been a nightmare. Hell, finding her way out of the Jersey turnpike had been even worse. Still. Walking through the airport... The service at Axis... Not a single white man had given her lip. A taxi had even stopped for her as she walked out of the terminal. In retrospect, she wished she had taken him up on his offer. Fuck the turnpike.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Olivia marched into her office, slightly out of breath. "Olivia Benson. Good to meet you."

"Daisy Ogbaa."

She crossed her arms. No. She didn't know what to make of New York. She didn't know what to make of this SVU unit either. Not Tutola, not Carisi, and not Benson. She watched as Olivia settled down.

"You really didn't need to come up all this way," Olivia said. "We would've been happy to help in any way you needed."

"The task force wanted to take a little bit more of a hands on approach on this one."

"And there was something wrong with the New York City Marshalls?"

"We wanted to keep this in-house, too."

Olivia paused, giving the fast paced conversation a break. Time to breathe. "I understand." She didn't sit down. No. She stayed level with Daisy. "So what do you need?"

"You already know the basics. Your Tri-State Rapist. Victor Sadry. After your unit and the bureau nabs him, he gets sent to Fort Dix. Trouble stirs up and he manages a transfer down to Beaumont."

"And let me guess. Something went wrong."

"You got that right. About a month ago, Sadry escaped FCI Beaumont."

"What?"

Daisy ignored Olivia's outburst. "After he escapes, Houston gets hit with a series of rapes."

"You've got to be kidding me. Why haven't we heard anything unti now?"

"Feds want to keep this quiet, especially after the prison break y'all had up here..."

"...And because his MO is subtle, no one else has put two and two together."

"As far as everyone else is concerned," Daisy said, nodding in agreement, "there's just a couple of random rapists running around town. No one even suspects a serial."

"So what do you need from us?"

Daisy handed Olivia the file. "We think he's running around with accomplices. We think that he met one of them during his stay at Fort Dix."

"You think these are apprentices?" Oliva said.

"That's right. I could have just hit up Fort Dix on my own, but we figured we'd bring y'all in as a courtesy. We don't care much for jurisdiction. We just want to bring these guys back in."

"Same here. We have a few friends at Fort Dix, too. I'm sure they'll be happy to lend a hand."

"Perfect."

"Have you met the rest of the team, yet?" Olivia walked over to the door, opening it for the marshal.

"Detectives Tutola and Carisi. Anyone else?"

Daisy walked out with the Lieutenant, finding that the squadroom had filled out during their meeting.

"Deputy Marshal Ogbaa? Meet the rest of the squad. This is Detective Chris Diaz. Came in from Toronto. Our newest addition to the squad." Olivia turned towards the young detective. "Diaz. Where's Rollins?"

"She's booking Bisset. Uh, she'll be back in a minute."

"I'm right here, LT." The southern drawl from behind the squadroom door was unmistakeable. "What's up?"

"And this," said Olivia, turning towards Daisy, "is Sergeant Amanda Rollins."

The corners of Amanda's lips dropped as she walked into the squadroom. The cups of coffee fell to the floor, splashing and pooling around her shoes.

Daisy pushed forward from behind Olivia. "Annie?"

Amanda opened her mouth to speak. Only not a word escaped. She looked down at the coffee instead, only after half a minute had passed. She grabbed a stack of napkins off of Carisi's desk before bending down to dab at the mess.

"Shit," she said, whispering.

Olivia walked over and put her hand on Amanda's shoulder, ignoring Carisi's raised eyebrow and smirk. She whispered low enough so no one else could hear. "Amanda. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah... Yeah. I'm fine, LT."

"You sure?"

"I am." Amanda stopped. She breathed deeply through her nose before looking up at her lieutenant. "Can I have the room with her, Liv?"

* * *

Olivia nodded. Amanda didn't often drop formalties. "It's a slow day. You can take the interrogation room."

"What the hell, Annie?"

"No." Amanda covered her face with her hand. "Not Annie. It's Amanda."

"Is this some sort of a joke?"

"I'm sorry, Daisy."

"We had no idea where you went. Not one of us. You might as well have been dead."

"You think that's what I wanted? I didn't have a choice."

"There's always a choice," Daisy said. She pushed a finger into Amanda's chest. "So what is this? Do they even know who you are?"

"You know what? Yes. They do. I'm Amanda Rollins. _Rollins_. Not Frost. Not Annie. All of that... Shit went down in

Atlanta, and they gave me one of two choices. When APD heard whisperings of corruption down in Dallas..."

"You were UC."

"APD practically sold me to the Marshals. Made me do their dirty work for them. Like I said. They didn't give me

much of a choice. I was either gonna snitch or lose my shield."

"So Jimmy..."

"Yeah. That was me."

"And Ben?"

"That was me, too."

"Damnit, Annie." Daisy turned away. "That girl. The girlfriend of that bomber's vic. When we first questioned her... She kept looking at you funny. Recognized you. And you know what? I think she even called you Amanda, once.

I should have known... I really should have known."

"She's my sister. We had to play clean up. Fast."

"That whole case... This whole time... You were lying to us. Spying on us. We trusted you, Annie. With our lives.

You led our team! Luke looked up to you!"

"I'm sorry, Daisy. I truly am."

"You ever get tired of saying that?"

Amanda smiled weakly, shrugging. "Yeah. I do. Every day."

* * *

 **To be continued...**


	2. She is Gone

The Fort Dix gates closed as they stepped out of their cars. Olivia watched from behind with Diaz as the two ladies from the south continued to talk. She watched as their shoulders touched. Grazed. She frowned. Amanda hadn't said a word to her since they left the precinct. No. She only had words for this marshal.

It didn't help that she still didn't know what in the hell was going on with her sergeant.

"What brings NYPD into Jersey?" The warden's accent was thick. Heavy in his mouth. He looked over at Diaz. "How

can I help you ladies?"

"Lieutenant Benson. SVU. We're here to talk about Victor Sadry."

"Haven't you heard? Your boy Sadry's been moved down to Texas."

"Can we speak to any known associates?"

"This is a low security complex, ma'am. Half his dorm has already cycled out of the system."

Daisy pushed forward. "What about COs? He get close to any?"

"I don't know if I appreciate your tone. This is a respectable facility with a low recividism rate."

"Awfully defensive, aren't you?" Daisy said.

"Now, you listen here-!"

"No, you listen." Amanda stepped in. Close to the warden. "I don't think that *I* appreciate the tone _you're_ taking with my friend here, and I certainly don't have time for this shit. So here's what you're going to do.

You're going to give us a list of every inmate and every CO who has ever said even a single meaningful word to Sadry. Understand?"

"Uh, yes. Right away, sergeant. Whatever you need."

Daisy stepped back and smiled. "That's my girl," she said. "That's my Annie."

Olivia frowned again.

Annie?

She didn't like this. She didn't like this one bit. Not this mess with Sadry or this mess with Amanda.

"Hey, Diaz." She pulled the young detective aside. "Drive Marshal Ogbaa to wherever it is she's staying. Then take the night off. That clear? I don't need any more of you taking up too much overtime."

"Got it, LT." He paused before turning. "What about Sarge?"

"Don't worry about her. Got some paperwork I need to go over with her anyway."

The kid nodded and he almost tripped running over to the car. Eager. Pairing him up with Amanda had been a good choice. He looked up to her. Adopted a few of her mannerisms too. It's funny, isn't it? How times have changed? How everyone's grown?

Olivia waved Amanda over to her car, and neither spoke as they drove away from Fort Dixon. No one said a word until they had already made it back into the city limits, caught within a sea of yellow traffic. Amanda pressed the back of her head into her car seat.

"I guess I owe you an explanation," she said, slowly.

"Is it going to get in the way of the case?"

"It might."

"Do you need to recuse yourself?"

"It isn't like that, Liv. I just..." She looked away. Played with the fabric of her seatbelt. "Look. After the incident in Atlanta... I didn't come straight to New York. Turned out US Marshals needed to plant a mole in one of their units... They just didn't want to spare any of their boys. APD brass was looking to get rid of me for a while so... Let's just say there's a reason I was able to be so good at going UC at that gambling club."

"How long were you UC?"

"A little over two years. I was team lead of the Houston Task Force. Took the name of Annie Frost. Whole new life,

whole new everything. They hardly gave me time to prep. It wasn't like there was some sort of conspiracy over there. Just a bad command climate with more than a couple of bad eggs. Bounty hunters and deputies both."

"Do you trust Ogbaa?"

"You mean Daisy? Yeah. Of course, I do. She was one of the good ones. She, uh... Really trusted me..."

"Amanda. Look at me. Are you going to be alright?"

Amanda's voice shook as she spoke. "I think... I think I really need a meeting right now."

Olivia swerved the car suddenly to the right, cutting through the lanes before making the turn.

"What the hell, Liv?"

"I'm driving you to your meeting."

"I don't need a babysitter. You don't need to do this."

"Please, Amanda. Let me do this for you. I've got time. I thought I was going to get stuck with paperwork for the night, anyway. Which I'll leave for tomorrow. Right now? I'll drop you off, I'll pick you up, and then we can go see Noah."

"Why don't you come in with me?"

"What?"

"Tonight we were supposed to... Well, bring someone close to us. If we wanted. I was either gonna go alone or not at all, and if you're coming along anyway... Well, I'd like you to be there."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Of course, I'm sure."

* * *

"Still can't get used to calling you, Amanda."

"Well, you're gonna have to. Because that," she said, "is my name."

"SVU, huh? You know I've got all I needed to know from New York. Heading back to Houston tonight. We could use your help nabbing the targets."

"I don't know..."

"I already talked to your lieutenant. She told me it was up to you."

"Don't you miss it? The rush? Come on. I heard you were the one to get Sadry. You know him better than anyone. And UC or not? You were pretty damn good at being a marshal. Plus, she said I either get you and Diaz or Tutuola and Carisi. Let me tell you. I don't know if I like Carisi."

"He's a good kid. He just gets carried away." She passed Daisy a coffee. "Alright. Fine. I won't stick you with Carisi. I'll come with." She paused as she made a second then third cup of coffee. "Did Liv say she was coming?"

"Liv? That's your lieutenant, right? Yeah. She might have said. What's she to you?"

"Nothing."

"Really?" Daisy raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that?"

"It's nothing, Daisy." Rollins rolled her eyes as she walked away towards the squadroom.

"Then who's that coffee for?"

"You ever think that I might just really like coffee?"

"Annie Nolan Frost. I don't care what your name really is. I know you better than that."

"You know I made that up, right? Nolan? Made that up right on the-"

Daisy stepped in. Closed the distance. She never thought she'd get to do this again. She never thought she'd get to kiss Annie Frost again. But she wasn't really kissing Annie Frost anymore, was she? No. She was kissing Amanda Rollins.

"Daisy..."

"You're not UC anymore. We're even in different units. Can you think of any reason we shouldn't do this?"

"Well..."

"It's that lieutenant, isn't it? You've fallen for her. Didn't think you'd go for the cougar type."

"It... ain't like that," Amanda said, quietly. "It don't matter anyway. It ain't reciprocated or nothing."

Daisy kissed Amanda again, and Amanda didn't stop her.

"I miss her, you know." Daisy stayed her hand on Amanda's cheek. "I miss Annie."

"I do, too."

"I'm starting to think I was right. I won't ever get her back, will I?"

"It doesn't work like that. You know that."

"It's fluid. I know. I just... It's been five years. I can't believe you've been here all along."

Olivia turned away, focusing her attention on blocking Carisi's view as best she could. She didn't think about the kiss. She couldn't. Not now. She left, the image of Daisy and Amanda burned into the back of her retinas.

* * *

Amanda Rollins hated flying. Hell, she wanted nothing more than to get the hell into a shower and wash the airplane gunk right off of her. That, and bed. A flat place to sleep. But she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

Sadry was still out there with two other punks. Get into the old office, then get out. Get the hell out of Dallas

and back to New York.

"Where the hell are we going?" She knew, though. She recognized the block.

"It's late," Daisy said.

"She's right," Olivia said from the front seat. Diaz shifted beside Rollins. "We're not going to be any good

without at least one night's rest."

Amanda jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped, looking up at the apartment building. "What the hell?"

The words seemed to have become a sort of mantra.

"Luke bought the place after you disappeared," Daisy said. "He managed to somehow convince himself that you might come back. And that if you came back, you'd want your place back. I guess I owe him one, now."

Amanda started to growl as she grabbed the bags out of the trunk of the car. "Good lord..."

"It's a nice place, Sarge," Diaz said. He fell into the couch.

"Glad you think so." Rollins smirked. "You just pulled couch duty, rookie."

Olivia laughed as Diaz groaned. She turned towards Amanda. "Your friend Daisy said she had groceries brought to the fridge. And that she'd be here tomorrow morning to drive us to your old office." She flicked her head toward Diaz. "You got any more couches, Rollins?"

"No..." Amanda blushed, turning her head so that neither Diaz nor Olivia could see. "I figure the bedroom's big enough. I think I have a sleeping bag, too. Come on." She opened the door for Olivia before walking in herself.

"Good night, Diaz."

"Night, ladies."

* * *

 **To be continued**


	3. I See a Darkness

"You look different," Olivia said. She stretched before slipping out of bed, watching out of the corner of her eye as Rollins rolled up the bag.

Amanda fidgeted with the leather holster around her waist. "Yeah. I forgot how much I missed this thing."

"It looks good on you."

Amanda's head snapped towards Olivia, stunned.

"Ready to go back in there?" Olivia continued. She hardly missed a beat.

"And see some of the old crew? Yeah. I guess. I don't know. I'm trying not to think about it. I just want to get back home."

"I hear you there."

"You miss Noah?"

"It's the first time I've been away from him for so long."

"We'll get the targets quick." Amanda slid her palm over where her marshal's badge would've been. "I promise, Liv."

"Targets?"

But Amanda had already slipped out of the bedroom. She watched as the young sergeant chucked oranges at her partner's head.

"Wake up, newbie." Amanda chucked another orange. "Come on. Wake up. Rise and shine."

Diaz halfheartedly threw an orange back, the other pieces of fruit falling to the floor. "Alright, I got it. I'm up. Stop already."

"We gotta get going. Daisy's already here. I thought all you city folk moved fast?"

"I'm from Toronto, Sarge."

Olivia didn't think much of it at first. She told herself it had been five years since Amanda had left Annie Frost behind in Dallas. But she had seen this before, hadn't she? With other UCs? If you fake it long enough... Amanda and Annie aren't too different, Olivia thought. They have the same swagger. The same way about them. But Annie... She must have had a little extra pop in her step. A little more dare.

Olivia could see it in Amanda's eyes. The spark that would cause her to become inexplicably drawn to the dangerous.

She recognized that spark, too. From before. From the beginning. From the moment she had walked into the squad room, still reeling from Elliot's departure, only to find Amanda Rollins sitting at his desk. She had seen it then... The gambling had extinguished it. New York had extinguished it.

But Olivia couldn't tell which was worse.

Because the spark scared her.

What the spark might make Amanda do scared her.

"I'm Vic Sadry," Amanda said. She faced the other deputies, hand resting on her hip. "My daddy dies when I'm ten, and my momma walks out on me three years later. I get sent from foster home to foster home until I get to New York. I'm eighteen. I get processed out of the system. I rape my first vic in Harlem... What's the MO here?"

Diaz piped in from behind; "You flip a coin. Heads you rape her, tails you don't. He told us himself."

"That's right. So... All of it. It's a gamble. Moving from foster home to foster home... Good family or bad... It's all a gamble to me. So I'm random. Meticulous. There's no way for the police to connect the dots. Except... With the last vic, I make a mistake. What changes?"

"He loses," Olivia said, stepping forward. Unsure of what to make of Amanda's demeanor. Of her rhetoric. "He loses in Atlantic City."

"Okay, so I hit up the big leagues for the first time, and I lose. I keep losing so I keep looking for my payoff only it never comes... The next vic I hit, I get sloppy. SVU catches a break, and I get charged."

"So now," Daisy said, "you've gotten moved into Beaumont, you've escaped, and you've picked up apprentices. We gotta figure out where you're going."

Diaz flipped through the files as he spoke. "He isn't going to go straight to some place like Vegas or Reno. He's picked up apprentices. One male, one female. The stakes are already high and he's got enough players. He's going to try to teach them how to play the game only... I don't know. I don't think he's going to go back to his old tricks."

"Good thinking, Diaz." She nods towards her protege. "Like he said. Higher stakes, more players. It's still all about the game, the gamble, but it's different now. A different game."

"The only question," said Olivia, "is what this new game is."

Amanda turned towards the profiles on the corkboard. "Well he's teaching his apprentices, right? He's gotta be teaching them how to be sharks. He's not going to want them to make the same mistakes he did. What's the perfect mark for a shark?"

"Other gamblers," Olivia said, quietly. "Gamblers who are either too new at the game to know what's going on or gamblers who have got too much of a problem to care." She turned towards Amanda. "Rollins, I don't like where this is going."

"I'll be fine, LT," she said, attempting to reassure Olivia. She flashed a smile towards the latino deputy standing to the side. "Hey, Marco. You mind if I-?"

"Be my guest. I've been looking forward to this for a long time."

"Alright. Houston has only got a handful of gambling rings. We'll send units out to canvas them all, but SVU... If y'all don't mind, once we get a bead on them, we'll go undercover. Flush them out. As far as I'm concerned, this ain't just an extraction op. The other two are targets too, and we're gonna want to nail them on charges as well."

"We gonna honeypot these bastards?" asked Luke. He stood, clean shaven as ever, beside Marco.

"That we are, sweetpea," she said, winking. "That we are."

* * *

"Rollins, stop."

Amanda grimaced, attempting to layer on the make-up without slipping. "What?"

"You can't be the one who goes undercover."

"I can take care of myself, Liv." She flinched. "I know what I'm doing."

"Do you?"

"Look, LT." Amanda pulled the walls back up around her. She drowned out the butterflies flying restlessly through her gut. "I got this. I know how gamblers think. How do you think I got the bead on him last time?"

"You can prep someone else."

"We don't have time."

"He'll recognize you."

"I put on a wig, a pair glasses, on make-up. It's a wonder what cosmetics will do."

"You don't have to do this to yourself, Amanda. I know that... Look. You're back in my good graces, okay? We can work something else out."

"If I'm back in your grood graces..." Amanda stood up. Gravitated towards Olivia. She couldn't help herself. "If I'm back in your good graces, you'll trust me on this. You said it. Amaro said it. Otherwise I ain't gonna be any use to you."

"You know, at some point, the lot of you are going to have to stop using that as a cop out."

"I'm sorry," Amanda said. She could feel her heart beat the blood through her veins. She prayed that Olivia couldn't hear. "You'll be there, right? You'll be behind me on this. I look up to you. I always have. And you... You've given me the strenght to stay strong. To not go back and make the same mistake over and over again."

She hadn't realized that she had swayed her hands forward. She hadn't realized she had begun to lightly run the pad of her thumb over the back of Olivia's hand.

"Shit. Uh, I gotta go. Talk things over with Daisy and the others. Marco's going to want to talk to you, too. He's the team lead now... I think he has been since I left..."

And with that she was gone.

* * *

"So it's Marco, right?"

"That's right. Marco Martinez." He tipped the waxed soda cup towards Olivia. "Thanks for the snacks, by the way. Hate to do a stakeout without snacks. Anything you wanted to talk about?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do." She trained her eyes on the screen. On Diaz. On Daisy. On Amanda. She pursed her lips as she glanced over at Luke.

"Okay, I get it," said Marco. He turned towards Luke. Passed him the headset. "Hey, greenbean. Keep the muffs on and turn the sound up, got it?"

"It's been five years. Why am I still greenbean?"

"Because I say so. Now keep them on." Marco turned back to Olivia. "Now, what's on your mind?"

"Rollins."

"You mean Annie? Yeah, I figured she was UC when IAB came in for Jimmy. Do I agree with the way it all went down? No. We were supposed to be a family. Way I see it, both of them screwed up. Jimmy AND Annie."

"I mean, what was she like. When she was here."

"Reckless." Marco answered easily. Without pause. "Hell, I saw her nearly jump right off of a five story balcony. She was running after a target. Jimmy was the one to grab her before she could. Right after that? She made a beeline towards an armed target while he was reloading. She said she knew she could make it. I don't know. Did you know she jumped onto the wing of a plane? While it was taking off, too."

"What?"

"Shot at the propeller until it could. Yeah, the target tried to shake her off, but she held on."

"Jesus..."

"You didn't know?"

"No..." Olivia shook her head. It made sense, though. Of course, it made sense. "So this Jimmy. Did she sleep with him?"

"Well, that's personal, isn't it?"

"Sorry. I'm just worried about her."

"She didn't. I don't think so, anyway. Now, Daisy? That might be a different story."

"Daisy?"

"Oh yeah. Wasn't a relationship or nothing."

"So she's..."

"Don't make too much of it, alright? Not while we're here. Houston isn't so easy on that sort of thing. Don't forget she's from Georgia, either."

"I'm looking out for her, Marco. Whether you believe me or not."

"Hey. I believe you. Of course, I do. You think I would tell you any of this if I thought you were bad for her? No matter what happened, Annie is still family. You take care of her, alright? If you don't, I'll have your ass." He smiled. "Lieutenant."

"Hey!" Luke interrupted. "That Diaz kid is giving us the signal. Something's going down."

Olivia moved scanned the screen. All of them.

"Amanda," she said. "Where is she?"

"I don't know! Her signal went out!"

"Fuck!"

Olivia jumped out of the truck, Luke and Marco in tow. She watched the girl sprint out of the building and into a car. She watched Amanda follow. She watched Amanda step in front. She watched Amanda step into the vehicle's path. Olivia barely had time to think.

"Amanda!" She ran towards the other detective. "What the hell are you doing?"

Amanda didn't budge. She didn't flinch. She stared forward. Unmoving.

The car hit her straight on. The girl didn't stop.

Olivia couldn't make it in on time.

* * *

 **To be continued**


	4. The Circle is Unbroken

"Raise."

She peaked again at the suited faces, lifting the cards by the corner. She allowed herself to smile slightly, and she ran her fingers over the clay chips, tapping one chip against the other. Clink. Clink. Clink.

"You sure you wanna do that, honey?" The man beside her grabbed her hand before she could throw the chips into the pot. "You know you can check."

"I know," she said. "Raise."

Amanda pushed the chips into the pot, pushing away the man. Her heart beat in her chest. The tingle began in her toes. Rose up her shins. Into her knees. Through her chest. Clink. Clink. The pot only grew in size. Some schmuck folded. Fiddled with the remainder of his chips. All ten of them.

The flop: Four of spades. Nine of spades. Jack of hearts.

"Raise," she said again.

Another card flipped up on the table. Ten of diamonds. Amanda peeked again. Just one more card. A ten. One more card for the straight. She could feel her heart rate rise. She could feel the pulse in her veins and the squeeze in her lungs.

"Are you sure, sweetcheeks? Seems risky," said the man. He smirked, running his hand up the length of her arm. "I raise, too."

"Raise."

"Is that right? Fine. I'll bite. Call."

There it is. In the river. The clubs. Ten of them. Out on the table.

She raised again. He called.

"Three of a kind," he said. "Jacks."

Amanda smiled. Her fingers itched to pull in the pot, stack it all out in front of her. She flipped her cards over. "Straight."

"Well, damn. Aren't you the lucky one?"

"It ain't about luck."

Another man. A Texan drawl. The apprentice. Bob Reynolds. Reynolds pulled the man away. "This asshole bothering you, miss?"

"Just trying to play a couple of hands here, alright?" she said.

Reynolds leaned in close. Pushed a hand up her shirt. He grabbed the wire and yanked. A gunshot. Screams. She could see, from the corner of her eye, Sadry drop dead.

"I know who you are," he said. "We know who you are, Annie Frost."

* * *

Diaz runs towards Reynolds, weapon drawn. He speaks harshly into the comm; "We've been made! Sadry's down!"

He raises his gun to Reynolds' head and his hands shakes. He yells. Screams at him. Reynolds doesn't hear. He doesn't hear or he doesn't care. He holds you from behind, wrapping an arm around your neck, holding a hand to the back of your head. A chokehold.

You flip him around. Knee him in the back. Pull him to the ground.

"Diaz! Book him!" you say and you still his hands. "Where's the girl? She shot Sadry? Where'd she go?"

"I think she got out, Sarge. I'm s-"

"Save it, Diaz. Stay here. I'm going after her."

So you sprint. Just like you used to. Adrenaline rushes through you. Just like before.

Annie Frost would never let the target get away. Never.

You vault over a table. Push aside a bystander. You nearly fall through the door. There. You can see her. You can see her fumble with the keys. She lurches the car forward. Small street. Only one place to go. So stand in her way. Either stop her or don't. At least you'll get a chance to look her in the eye. To see what kind of girl she was.

What would you do if you were her?

The car didn't stop.

You can hear Olivia scream.

You can feel yourself slide over the windshield.

"Amanda!" Olivia's by your side. Her voice is frantic.

"Liv?" Your voice comes out weaker than you expect. "Y-you have to go after her."

"Call a bus!"

"It..." Breathe. "...It ain't about Sadry... T-trying to... Get to Annie..."

"Come on!" Her voice is still frantic. "We have an officer down!"

"Liv?"

"I'm here, Amanda. I'm right here."

"My head hurts."

"We're getting you help. Just keep your eyes open. I'm right here."

Vision blurring. Foggy. Fuzzy. Like your face is stuffed with cotton balls. Your eyes, your ears, your mouth. Like cotton balls everywhere. Can't remember. Is this a dream? Blink. Must be a dream. Blink. Gotta try. Try to get the fog out of your eyes. You see a face. A voice. Talking to you again.

"I'm staying right here, Amanda" the voice says. "Don't worry. Just keep your eyes open."

"I... I almost had him, Jimmy."

They lift you. Roll you in with the EMTs.

"Go after him, Jimmy. You have to..."

* * *

 **To be continued**


End file.
